Conscience at War

An exploration of the moral and intellectual conflict of Israeli citizens who have resisted military service, and of how they justify their choices of action. Israel’s security is maintained largely by civilians in uniform. The chronic state of war in Israel requires that every Israeli civilian serve in the Israel Defense Forces as a reservist until the age of 55. The focus of this book is the intellectual and moral challenges selective conscientious objection poses for resisters in Israel. It is the first psychological study of the Intifada refusniks.
The 1982–1985 Lebanon War was a dramatic turning point in the intensity, depth, forms, and magnitude of criticism against the army, and this war serves as the starting point for Ruth Linn’s inquiry into moral criticism of Israeli soldiers in morally no-win situations during the Intifada. In each of these conflicts, about 170 reserve soldiers became selective conscientious objectors. In each conflict, however, numerous objecting soldiers also “refused to refuse,” proclaiming that their right to voice their moral concern springs from their dedication to, and fulfillment of, the hardship of military obligation.
Linn uses the theories of Rawls, Walzer, Kohlberg, and Gilligan as a framework for understanding and interpreting interviews with objecting soldiers. By this means, she seeks to answer such questions as: How would various groups of objecting soldiers justify their specific choice of action? What are the psychological, moral, and non-moral characteristics of those individuals who decided to be, or refused to be, patriotic? And how did the Intifada, as a limited yet morally problematic military conflict, affect the moral thinking, emotions, and moral language of long term soldiers?

COVER

FRONT MATTER

CONTENTS

TABLES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks go to Dr. Russell Stone for his thorough review
of the book and to Dana Foote for her careful editorial help. Finally,
I would like to convey my thanks to Mrs. Sybil and Mr. Stephen
Stone, long-term advocates of justice and peace, who were the first
to encourage me to do this project. ...

The Silenced Civilian in Uniform: An Introduction

I belong to a special generation within Israeli society, one born after
the War of Independence (1948), and growing up with the hopes
and illusion of their parents that in the post-Holocaust era this generation
would never have to fight wars. For my generation, the
Holocaust, even though not suffered directly, is a concrete event. ...

1. Refusal as a Moral Position: From Separation to Connection

In the name of science, developmental and moral psychologists traditionally
detach themselves from two types of involvement. On
the personal level, they most often refrain from taking a position as
moral critics of real-life events. On the professional level, they
refrain from studying moral critics in two ancient and very familiar ...

2. Refusal as a Moral Decision: From Justice to Compassion

There are two ways in which the individual soldier should judge a
given war: first, in regard to the justice of the war objectives (), and second in regards to the conduct of the war (jus in
bello). The distinction between jus ad bellum and jus in bello consists
of "two clusters of prohibitions attached to the central principle

3. Refusal in the Battlefield: From Passive to Active

What does the combatant's moral competence tell about his moral
action in general and while under pressure in particular? Kohlberg
(1984) believes that one does not act directly on principles, but
rather on specific content judgments engendered by those principles.
Moral judgments serve two psychological functions that he ...

4. Refusal in Context: From Vietnam to Algiers

Service in the army is one of the most serious moral obligations of
the Israeli male citizen. Refusal to serve in the IDF in order to protect
a soldier's own moral integrity, and/or effect change in society,
has no legal status. Objection on conscientious grounds by secular
combatant soldiers has been very rare, consisting of a few individuals
whose sporadic challenges to military service have hardly ...

5. Refusal in Action: From Precedence to Option

When deciding to detach themselves from the shared moral meaning
of the army, the Intifada refusers suggest that this action was
the only way in which they could be true to their moral selves, and
that there was no other way in which their conscience could
remain intact. The validation of this deliberate moral choice is not ...

6. Forms of Criticism: From "Voice" to "Exit"

This chapter tries to locate the action of selective refusal during the
Intifada within the range of moral criticism during this conflict. For
the sake of analysis, we choose to (partially) borrow the concepts of
'voice' and 'exit' from Hirschman's (1970) model of response to pressure
in the world of business. In Hirschman's model, "loyalty," ...

7. Criticism and Culture: From Collective Memories to Voice

Critical thinking requires the use of imagination, "seeing things
from perspectives other than our own and envisioning the likely
consequences of our position" (Barnet and Bedau, p. 4). In this
chapter we argue that the collective memories of the Holocaust
serves as a central perspective for the Israeli civilian in uniform; ...

8. Refusal and Motivation: From Moral and Political to Personal

A full understanding of selective conscientious objection
requires an appreciation of the motivation of the disobedient. For
this, argues Cohen (1971), we must go beyond the analysis of the
objectively performed act, inquiring into the subjective and, hence,
murky sphere of the character and aims of the actor. Particularly in ...

9. Refusal on Trial: From Morality to Credibility

Combatants' understanding of principles of justice does not guarantee
that these principles are honestly held or believed, particularly
when one's own life is at stake as in a war situation. These principles
might be used as an excuse for not doing one's own duty, as
a cover for fear, or even for revolutionary plans. These principles ...

10. Criticism in the Making: From Emotion to Cognition

Israel's military preparedness rests heavily on the reserve force's
availability for deployment in times of emergencies. The reservist's
loyalty to this type of service was traditionally ascribed to his moral
motivation-his belief in his right and necessity to fight a defensive
and just war (Gal 1986). This belief was dramatically shaken for ...

11. Refusal in Perspective: From the War of Attrition to Moral Attrition

Seven years after the beginning of the war in Lebanon, and in the
second year of the uprising in the territories, the Haifa Theater
staged a play written by Irwin Shaw in 1936 called "The Rebellion
of the Dead." In the play six dead soldiers raise their heads during
the funeral service and refuse to be buried. Their refusal to comply ...

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